Grant aims to get kids walking

There won’t be any wheels on this bus and but it will be going round and round, ideally starting this fall with the Kirksville School District’s first walking school bus program.

The program is grant funded, along with $250,000 in infrastructure funding as part of the Safe Routes to School program, a federal program administered through the Missouri Department of Transportation.

“When we were writing for the grant, we hoped it would be something to implement in the spring and fall when weather is favorable and it would be an effort to do two things,” said Assistant Superintendent Jane Schaper. “First of all, it would about health and wellness for our students and give them the opportunity to bike or walk from a pickup and drop-off point and the second advantage would be to hopefully alleviate some traffic problems we have and encourage kids to walk.”

The concept calls for two drop-off/pickup locations less than a mile from the school where parents would arrange to meet their children, rather than focus all the traffic on campus.

The program in Kirksville was inspired by PedNet of Columbia, which has organized a similar effort across the Columbia schools and has about 400 students walking to school each day.

“It’s the largest walking school bus program in the nation,” said community organizer and Daily Express bicycling blogger Rachel Ruhlen of the Columbia effort. “I’m really thrilled we’ll have the program here.”

The grant provides about $13,000 for the walking school bus program, which will target students at the Primary School and Ray Miller Elementary this fall.

And in conjunction with more students walking to school, the city will also be conducting $250,000-worth of work on La Harpe Street to essentially connect all the universities, downtown district and schools by the walking/biking trails across the city.

The La Harpe portion is expected to begin work next spring and will provide for sidewalks along the north side of the street from Franklin Street and on the south side of the street toward Cottage Grove.

“This will obviously make it safer for college students and the R-III students,” said Sarah Halstead, the city’s community services coordinator. “And it will tie in with the walking school bus program by allowing students to walk from across the city to Cottage Grove Place. It all connects and will make a big loop from Shepherd Street to the schools and connect to the trails at the YMCA.”

Halstead referred to the La Harpe sidewalk as the “missing piece” of the city’s biking trails.